Rep. Charles Rangel walks out of his own ethics hearing

Source: LA Times

WASHINGTON — The long-awaited congressional ethics hearing for New York Rep. Charles Rangel proceeded without him Monday morning after the Harlem Democrat walked out of the proceeding, saying he did not have legal representation.

In a tense exchange with members of a subcommittee of the House ethics panel, Rangel complained that the two-year investigation into whether he had failed to report sources of income, among the 13 alleged violations, caused him to rack up a legal tab of nearly $2 million. His lawyers warned the hearing could cost another $1 million. After he was unable to convince them that he would be able to pay, they withdrew as his representatives earlier this fall, Rangel said.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/sc-dc-rangel-trial-opens-20101115,0,5460151.story

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No delay until the new Congress. I wonder if charges would have to be levelled anew or if the ethics committee would simply then be easily portrayed as nasty repubs taking aim at a black liberal politician. That would make for much better politics.

Still, it's hard for a (formerly?) wealthy long-standing high-ranking lawyer to gin up much empathy arguing that he lacks legal representation when charges of corruption are being laid--reluctantly, I'd assume--by members of his own party.

Then there's the turn of speech "being denied" representation. By whom? By the law firm he had hired? Any lack of ethics on their part hinges on when they bailed. His lack of legal representation surely comes as no surprise to him. Plus he has his J.D. and there's no statute against representing himself. Denied legal representation by the legal community at large? By the House? By the Senate? By his elected Congressional Representative? By whom, exactly?

In other pressing news, last night our cat took a flying leap onto the edge of the bathtub last night and ricocheted into the tub itself, intending to lurk within so it could pounce on us when we got ready for bed as it usually does. However, our son had an unusual late-evening bath, so the cat lept into the tub and promptly found in utter shock that it was underwater. It couldn't imagine such a thing--doing the same thing as usual, but landed itself not just in hot water but in quite over its head. Even worse, it was a bubble bath. Yet when it was removed from the tub, it sat there and seemed to blame everybody but itself for its actions before skulking off, biting anybody who tried to rinse off the soap or even try to dry it. Didn't have much empathy for that cat, either.

First, regardless of who's in charge of Congress, the Ethics Committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.

Second, it'll be hard for a guy like Rangel to sell the "I couldn't get a lawyer" argument.

a public defender, preferably one of the Texas kind that sleeps through trials.